House Republicans Once Again Target the Unemployed

In December, after being battered in the arena of public opinion, House Republicans reluctantly agreed to a short extension of unemployment insurance (UI) for the nation’s jobless workers. That reprieve runs out Feb. 29 and House Republicans are set to relaunch their attack on UI.

A conference is now underway between the Senate and House over two very different one-year extensions of the UI program passed late last year and the Republican bill would “slash federal benefits, impose harsh new restrictions and move to dismantle the essential lifeline of unemployment insurance,” writes Mitchell Hirsch of the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

Among other things the Republican UI bill would:

• Slash federal UI by more than half in the highest unemployment states;
• Allow mandatory drug testing of unemployment insurance claimants, stigmatizing jobless workers;
• Make jobless workers pay for their reemployment services;
• Deny benefits to those not fortunate enough to finish high school or GED; and
• Let states reduce benefits and divert unemployment benefit funds to other uses.

Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee says House Republicans:

are threatening another round of brinksmanship by insisting on starting with a rerun of the approaches within the House Republican bill… Department of Labor data shows that 2.8 million Americans would lose unemployment benefits under the House Republican proposal compared to current law… Democrats won’t start from the premise that the unemployed are to blame for unemployment, that weeks can be slashed without harming workers in the hardest hit states.

NELP has published a detailed legislative analysis of the Republican bill, click here and you can click here to send a message to your member of Congress to reject the drastic cuts and restrictions in the Republican UI bill.